[Clive]
The blogger series continues. Here’s the choice of Britain’s Tim Worstall, ardent free marketeer, libertarian, and all-round mischief-maker. He’s opted for Milton and Rose Friedman’s "Free to Choose".
The book grew out of the TV series of the late 70s. Both hit me just as I was starting to learn a little economics for the first time. I had been reading J.K. Galbraith, and loved him for both his prose and his ideas, most especially the thoughts on private affluence and public squalor. After reading the Friedmans I still loved J.K. for his prose style, much less so for his ideas.
"Free to Choose" shocked me out of my (entirely natural, it happens to us all) teenage socialism and made me the bleeding-heart classical liberal I am today. I don’t care about the intentions of the people suggesting public policy, only about the outcomes. Minimum wages hurt the working poor. Drug prohibition will only work (and possibly not even then) at the cost of liberty. Banning sweatshops will mean no jobs, not better ones for the poor.
I re-read "FtC" this year after the sad news of Milton Friedman’s death. It’s still just as stunning in its implications as it was when first published. The world works better when politicians and planners bugger off and let people get on with things themselves. If "A Monetary History of the United States" is beyond you (as it is me) then this is the best introduction to Friedman’s ideas.
The Dish 